Photos

There were a dearth of updates and information between the October update and now. That is entirely my fault. The repair board defaults to me as the speaker, and I'm the only one who has written updates. When I didn't, they didn't. So you were in the dark for a couple months. I caused that.

Last year, I said "yes" to too many things, and I spent 220 out of 365 days traveling. I'd come home from a bunch of travel, find my housemate had piled all the mail and packages on my bed, get them out of the way, fall asleep, and then begin packing for the next trip when I woke up. The result was that I was often having trouble answering mail and shipping out my own packages, much less working with the boxes of picks that Schuyler has been steadily sending me.

Last week, a bunch of picks went out of $500 backers. More will go out Monday. Sales of pick sets to offset costs will continue and are likely to be on a Shopify store, along with the promised sales of locks and shirts and cases I mentioned last year.

Schuyler has been working steadily on picks, refining his process, and has been putting money into the (separate) account we set up for buying material, as was promised. The process, while relatively slow, is continuing.

There is no point in giving time estimates, but be assured I would like this all in the rear window of everyone's life as much as everyone else, including Schuyler, who has returned to a healthy and happy life and is happily making his picks as well as his work researching lock history and his day job that gives him the structure (and health insurance) he needed.

Do not let us lag, next time. My e-mail is jason@textfiles.com. Feel free to comment here, but also please mail me - it has been a very involved year, and this year is me saying "no" to a lot of travel and commitments so I can clear out my backlog, including this project.

The first set of what will hopefully be many backer-directed picks have come in from Schuyler. They'll start being distributed shortly.

I wanted to talk about the logistics of this, and how we're going about distribution.

The way picks are going out is to go down the tiers, from the $2,500 backers, down to the last level which was promised picks, which is the $35 level backers. Additionally, there are people who paid in direct to Schuyler at various levels outside of Kickstarter (we have those records as well). In each set, the general plan is to go down alphabetically, although weirdness with usernames will probably put a few people out of order. That's the general set, though.

We chose this because we think it's only fair in terms of money contributed to the kickstarter, and to keep an eye on how many picks have gone out.

As we think we've completed a level, we'll update folks here, so they can keep an idea of how things are progressing.

As it stands, the top tiers have quite a few picks owed them, so we're working through that. It means that for the small batch Schuyler sent, they'll all be going to these high tiers. As we get to the $100 level, things should even out more and an incoming backer batch will get distributed out to many more folks.

Sitting in my inbox are a number of other odds and ends with backers, be it shirts, cases, and boxes that didn't arrive. Those are being gone through now and I hope we'll be done with those as backer-owed items soon. Thanks for everyone's patience on that.

We're also about to open the Shopify store to sell off surplus items. A collection of items will be kept to ensure backers still can get something they're owed.

Schuyler continues to refine his process with the lockpicks. He has changed his welder parts slightly to improve his welding, and has been working steadily on making more pick sets. That said, I think it unwise to give estimates as to how long these rounds of sales and manufacture will take. I personally think it would be nice of Schuyler could attend DEFCON 22 (August 2014) with all this behind him - but there's still a lot in the air.

Thanks again to everyone, and for being patient as we continue to close out this kickstarter.

Today, I received the first batch of lockpicks from Schuyler. It is twenty-five sets of 20 lockpicks, the largest set offered.

So, these are real. 5 have already been sold and are set aside, leaving 20 as of this writing.

The goal is to sell these as soon as possible (along with some others) so the next batch can be ordered up. Schuyler has to finish the batch of lockpicks he has already, and those will be going to me for distribution to backers.

I mentioned these were being sold at Derbycon, where members of the communities that Schuyler runs in can see them for themselves.

Most people, I hope, understand why this situation exists - to raise funds for each new batch of etched metal, and to get the picks out into the wild into hands, so they can promote the next sets for sale as they become available.

However, like many good intentions, there are inevitably some people who misinterpreted the situation, so I wanted to make it clear.

I thought it in very poor taste and very sketchy to turn to the backers for a chance to order from the for-sale pile of picks.

However, some backers have made it clear they think it is in poor taste to NOT be offered first shot at the picks.

With that in mind, I'm leaving for Derbycon tomorrow, mid-day. I'd like to offer to backers who want it, the chance to buy these picks.

For convenience sake, and JUST FOR THIS FIRST SMALL BATCH, I'd like to limit this to US backers only. This way I can mail them out tonight or tomorrow, immediately, without learning the international shipping issues.

The price is $75 plus $3 shipping - $78. It would be easiest for me to do this across paypal. Please contact me at locks@textfiles.com and we'll make payment arrangements and reserve out sets.

If you're a backer who would like to wait for your picks to arrive in the mail, thankyouverymuch, that is completely understood and acceptable. It is not a case of us needing to sell picks to backers to make our next batches - this is being offered as a courtesy to people who want to buy these picks and wish to end up with two sets at the end of this process.

I have to close this offer tonight at 3am EST, midnight PST, so I can pack these for travel.

Schuyler is finishing up the first batch of picks. We lost a very small amount due to a manufacturing issue with metal that will be fixed, and the rest have been going through this first round very well. Schuyler is to priority mail me all the finished picks he has by tomorrow, and then finish the rest of the batch.

I will then be taking the first set to sell at Derbycon this upcoming weekend, and selling them there. Based on mails and contacts I've gotten, I expect the first batch to sell out quickly, meaning we can have the next batch going very quickly.

This is, as expected, an intense labor process for Schuyler, and it is likely we will have to assemble teams as time goes on to put these together, but for now, he is working very hard, very happily, and very quickly to get picks out the door to you.

Here's an overview from Schuyler of the process:

http://tinyletter.com/schuyler/letters/short-one-as-i-assemble-picks

Here is a video posted of your picks being made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T85_2OWgnnY

And finally, here is an encouraging essay from Schuyler about safes. I say encouraging because it's him doing research and learning about this subject he loves, hopefully meaning more essays and insight from him in the future.